Thoughts, musings, ideas and occasionally short rants on the past, present and future of electronics entertainment

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Cross Media Deja Vu

In case you don't know "deja vu" is a French phrase used to describe an event that feels like an exact repeat of a previous experience. I've never had a feeling of deja vu while playing a video game, but I have had it twice (back-to-back) recently while watching movies. The most bizarre part is the feeling of witnessing it all before wasn't tied to other films, but rather video games.

I suppose it's not all that unusual to be reminded of a video game while watching a movie. I've heard people say that watching "Big Trouble in Little China" reminded them of Mortal Kombat (even though the former pre-dates the latter). At the very least Shang-sung and Raiden look like they were lifted directly from the film. Another example is "Children of Men" and Half-Life 2. Aside from both taking place in European dystopias, the two have very little in common story-wise. However, the visual style and subdued color pallet of both mesh so perfectly it's hard not to see the resemblance. In my cases of deja vu though the connection between film and game probably won't be immediately obvious even to people who are familiar with both pieces of media.

I'm up to four "Paranormal Activity" movies that I've seen now. While critics are generally negative toward the series, I've always had a soft spot for found footage films. There's a certain art to making a film look like it was shot on a cheap portable camera by amateurs while still retaining the cinematic essence of a scene. It wasn't until the third entry in the franchise (not counting that spinoff in Tokyo) that I realized how much the film series felt like a later entry Silent Hill game, particular Silent Hill: The Room and Silent Hill: Homecoming. At the very least Dahlia Gillespie could pass herself off as Grandma Lois' sister (not to mention a member of the same cult). The plot point of having a gateway opening up inside your home that leads to another time and place isn't exactly original, but here it seems especially poignant considering the supernatural elements aren't attached to a place, but rather an individual. In "Paranormal Activity" it's usually one of the protagonists (or their kids) while in Silent Hill it's characters like Cheryl/Alessa/Heather, Walter Sullivan, or Alex Shepherd. The background info is also similar in many respects although this could simply be the result of both creative teams drawing inspiration from the horror classic "Rosemary's Baby," which in turn presumably comes from tales of occult practices.

Knowing how much was deliberately copied versus transmitted unintentionally through cultural osmosis can be a hard thing to determine, in some cases though it's pretty obvious. Take, for example, one of Hideo Kojima's first games - Snatcher.

Before dedicating a fairly large chunk of his life to the Metal Gear franchise, Hideo Kojima made a little point-and-click adventure game. It mashes together visuals and story elements from "Bladerunner," "the Terminator," and David Lynch's "Dune." In typical Kojima fashion he took building blocks of ideas he liked from other works and applied a hefty portion of his signature storytelling mortar to hold it all together. In that sense, it could be called a rip-off since there are way too many similarities to deny outside influence. That said, if you're going to call Snatcher the product of a hack, then you better be prepared to attach the same label to a lot of other great games, such as Red Dead Redemption. After all, the three major areas in the game represent the three primary subgenres the make up the Western. The middle starting area harkens back to classics like "Little House on the Prairie," "Bonanza," and a whole slew of Westerns staring John Wayne. Mexico is basically a big-o-plate of spaghetti westerns while the final area of the game dips into the revisionist western, the most iconic representation of which is the film "Unforgiven." This brings me to my second example of deja vu.

I was watching a Japanese movie called "Yurusuzaru Mono" which translates to "Unforgiven" in English. In fact the film is a re-make/adaptation of the Clint Eastwood motion picture of the same name. The big difference between the two is the location. "Yurusuzaru Mono" takes place in Hokkaido during the Meiji Restoration as opposed to the Wild West setting of "Unforgiven." Because of that "Yurusuzaru Mono" doesn't remind me of Red Dead Redemption. Instead I was constantly drawing parallels between the film and another open world video game, Way of the Samurai.

In some ways the resemblance is a no-brainer since the first Way of the Samurai game takes place in a similarly isolated Japanese village during the Meiji restoration. Hence, it makes sense that similar clothing, hair as well as notions of the ending of one era and the beginning of another, dominate the narrative. However the similarities extend even further to plot elements; assimilation by a ruthlessly militaristic government official, a blood-thirsty killer who actually isn't all that bad, not to mention an ending that involves copious amounts of fire and bloodshed. There's even a damsel in distress. It's all a bit odd considering that "Yurusuzaru Mono" is supposed to be borrowing plot points from "Unforgiven," and yet aside from the basic outline the resemblance between the two films feels inconsequential compared to Way of the Samurai. Did the director of "Yurusuzaru Momo" play this old PS2 game during his formative years? I don't know, but if he didn't that's one heck of a coincidence.